Reaction

Oh, our beloved K. We have come a long way since August. At the beginning, K was a successful Chief Financial Officer and enjoyed his life as a bachelor with multiple women like Fraulein Burstner and Elsa while we were stressing over the Common Application. Now, near the end of the book, K is losing sight over his future and seems to be under the control of everyone around him (even strangers) and we still don’t know where we will be going to college. I have enjoyed my time following K’s journey battling with the court and attempting to advance his trial while he has shadowed our progress through senior year.

I am a couple pages from finishing the book and am confident to say that my favorite chapter is the one in the cathedral with the priest. Rather than the priest relating himself with God and religion, he associates himself with the court as prison chaplain. In fact, we are only told that he is a priest because K classifies him as such and K’s interaction with him occurs in a cathedral. This shows that K still sees the world around him as controlled by other forces like legitimate governmental systems or careers and his perspective is hurting him. He divides his responsibility between different institutions rather than focusing on his trial and actually taking action. He wastes his time by busying himself with finding help and creating plans and proposals. He never assumes full responsibility. I think this kink in his perspective keeps him both optimistic about his future and wastes his time. This self-degradation is the root of the priest’s anecdote. K wastes his life trying to find people who will advance his case, like the countryman who succumbs to the doorkeeper, and will end up dead with no progress to show for his effort. In addition, Kafka creates a parallel between the critics who debate over the countryman’s pursuit of the Law and us as analyzers of K’s trial. We are able to have our own ideas and analyses of the author’s intent but what really matters are that both characters die in a wasteful battle, which they entitled for themselves. They never accomplished their goals because they suffered from the pressure of being human and under the control of illegitimate institutions whose power has never been questioned by others in the first place. I am left to question whether or not institutions that have control over us actually have legitimate authority. In other words, is it my responsibility to stand up to the “man”?